Robert Frost. Compare and Contrast, Research Paper Example

The two poems I have chosen to compare are “The Road Not Taken” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost. These two poems are those of Frost’s most much-loved works. Indeed, they both are exceptionally beautiful. Despite the apparent simplicity of poetic structure, Frost’s works communicate truly great ideas. About “The Road Not Taken” it is said: “The poem may seem to many to be the great pastoral symphony of his works; upon closer probing, however, one uncovers discordant notes and tense ambiguities” (Timmerman 69). True indeed, if being analyzed closely, both poems reveal unexpected meanings. They seem to disclose same issues, yet, in fact, have many dissimilarities and specific features.

Both Robert Frost’s poems “The Road Not Taken” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” reveals the theme of troubles caused by necessity of making choices in life. “Frost has written any number of poems that have such acts of choice as their dynamic center — choices that have been made, choices that will be made or that must be made, choices that have not been made” (Nitchie 157). In the first one the speaker comes upon a fork in the road while travelling through a wood. Considering both paths, he finally chooses one, realizing that his decision predetermines his destiny, since there would hardly be any way he could come back to that specific point of time and make another choice. The narrator concludes on a regretful note, wondering how different things would have been had he chosen the other road. In the second poem we observe how the narrator stops his sleigh to watch the snow falling in the woods on a gloomy winter evening. After a few moments of enjoying the beauty of winter scenery, he continues on his way unwillingly. Even though the themes of both poems are quite alike, there are, however, specific dissimilarities among them. “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” is about youth and dealing with life circumstances. Narrator observes the world in a positive way: even though he is under the burden of promises to be kept, he enjoys an easy wind, a downy lake, the lovely dark woods, he takes pleasure in living. “The Road Not Taken” is more probably about old age or, perhaps, an old spirit disillusioned, tired and worn out by life.  It is full or regret, of doubts about whether the chosen path is a right one. In “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” the speaker searches for a life deprived of soreness and fighting, yet still he has to act in accordance with social responsibility, which reproduces the obligation imposed on him by the society: “But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep” (Frost 14-15). “In “The Road Not Taken” the problem of choice is in a way even more elementary, since neither self-interest, moral obligation, nor even curiosity provides a real basis for preferring one road to the other” (Nitchie 17). The speaker prefers the unusual method of the decision making process, in such a way demonstrating his individuality and challenging state of mind: “Then took the other, as just as fair, and having perhaps the better claim, because it was grassy and wanted wear” (Frost 6).

The structure of both poems is quite similar. In relation to text they both seem to be quite plain. When analyzing “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” we observe that in sixteen lines, there is not a sole three-syllable word and only sixteen two-syllable words. Nevertheless, in relation to rhythmic scheme and form, the poems are unexpectedly elaborate. The poem is constructed of four stanzas, each one with four stressed syllables in iambic meter. For instance, in the first stanza first, second, and fourth lines rhyme, whereas the third line rhymes with the first, second, and fourth lines of the following stanza. “The interest in the final stanza is heightened by Frost’s repetend, or doubled last line” (Juten and Zubizarreta 348). Frost himself claimed that “the repetend was the only logical way to end such a poem” (Juten and Zubizarreta 348). Such an evocative duplication along with the preventive rhyme scheme and the promptness of the iambic tetrameter lines gives the poem its distinguishing worth. “The Road Not Taken” consists of four stanzas of five lines, each with a rhyme scheme of ABAAB. All stanzas and lines consistently the same length.

Both poems, “The Road Not Taken” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”, contain some figures of speech. Frost said that every poem he writes is always figurative, yet in two ways: it has figures in it, and it also represent a figure itself, meaning it is a figure for something in general, so that a reader usually gets two types of figures in one piece of poetry. Even though Frost doesn’t use much symbols, I believe the poems to be greatly symbolic in a general sense. In “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” we observe a journey through the wood, while it actually represents the “journey” through life. In “The Road Not Taken” the forked road represents choices in life, while the road represents a life itself. Every image here is very symbolic. In fact both poems are more allegoric than symbolic, since they obviously have a second meaning beneath the surface one. Moreover, we observe verbal irony in “The Road Not Taken”: the narrator realizes he will once tell the old story “with a sigh” of a choice that “made all the difference” (Frost 16-20). There is a personification in the “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”, when the author attribute distinct human quality to an animal: “My little horse must think it queer” (Frost 5).

The poet speaks for himself both in “The Road Not Taken” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”. He is not just a casual observer, but rather an omniscient narrator. He refers to himself in first person. It is known that the poem was inspired by an especially hard winter in New Hampshire. The story tells that Frost was returning home after an unproductive journey at the market. Recognizing that he did not have enough funds to buy Christmas presents for his children, Frost felt extremely depressed and stopped his horse at a curve in the road in order to shed tears for the matter. A few minutes passed, the horse shook the bells, and Frost felt optimistic enough to keep on travelling home. The speaker in the poem does not appear to go through the same financial and emotional troubles as Frost did, but there is still an overpowering sense of the narrator’s inescapable duties: “But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep” (Frost 14-15). The historical background of the poem definitely alters reader’s understanding of the speaker’s feelings and thoughts. “Lesley Frost (daughter) adds her own memory of her father, saying, in explanation, “A man has as much right as a woman to a good cry now and again. The snow gave me its shelter; the horse understood and gave me the time” (Juten and Zubizarreta 348). In “The Road Not Taken” the speaker describes himself going through the situation that almost every person faces in one’s life: “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and sorry I could not travel both” (Frost 1-2).  He has to decide on what path to choose between two possible variants, without having any awareness of where each road will guide. It is believed that the poem was originally written in a piece of correspondence to Edward Thomas, English poet and Frosts good friend. Probably, “it was indented to satirize the indecisive Thomas” (Timmerman 70).  If that was true, than the poem definitely took on a different meaning.

“The Road Not Taken” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” are both written in an emotional tone. The author is speaking to the reader in a delicate, intimate way, as if a person telling his deepest feelings. The author here is always present; in both poems we hear his voice sharing his thoughts with us, describing the observed scenes. The poet speaks in his own voice, supposedly to himself, or at least to no one in particular. In both poems tone is mainly an expression of the poet’s inner state. Speaker’s tone is also narrative, like if he is telling a piece of real life story. What is different between two pieces of poetry is that while “The Road Not Taken” is spoken in a melancholy tone, it is also ironic with respect to choices we make and where they eventually lead us: “I shall be telling this with a sight, somewhere ages and ages hence” (Frost 16-17). “One detects a tone of jesting but friendly conversation in the poem” (Juten and Zubizaretta 305).  “Stopping by Woods on Snowy Evening” is full of somewhat pure sadness. The author is observing a beautiful scene, he is touched by the peacefulness of nature, and even though he feels unhappy about the responsibilities he has, he is heading for home, which cannot be bad anyway. Are “promises to keep” such a bad thing? The speaker is not depressed, he is a bit melancholic. The whole image is far from being gloomy.

As for the setting, we observe nature in both poems. The speaker is travelling through the wood, he pays a lot of attention to what he is surrounded by. “Human complications of responsibility and desire become poignant largely through their contrast with nature’s impersonal simplicity” (Nitchie 21-22). Most of the images are literal. They are not abstract but rather concrete, even though having symbolic meanings. When talking about “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening”, it is much obvious that a great part of poem’s success is due to its simple but reminiscent images. The culmination of the poem is a conflict between the attraction of the woods, that are “lovely, dark and deep” (Frost 13), and speaker’s reasoning for continuing his journey. Describing the scene he observes, the speaker let us believe that he is in woods during the snowstorm, and that his earnest insight into the significance of experience is formed and discussed in the actual. “The Road Not Taken” perfectly captures a one momentum picture in nature. “A wistful tone is evoked by the autumn setting, nearly always a nostalgic and sometimes melancholy season in Frost’s poetry” (Juten and Zubizaretta 306). Nature in the poem seems not only to evoke pensiveness in the speaker, but also act on him, making him face a choice between two leaf-fallen paths. We observe them clearly – conflicting, branching off into the invisible distance, “and both that morning equally lay in leaves no step had trodden back” (Frost 11-12).

Works Cited

Doyle, J.R. The Poetry of Robert Frost: An Analysis. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, 1962.

Frost, R. Collected Poems of Robert Frost. New York: Henry Holt, 1930.

Juten, N. L., Zubizarreta, J., ed.  The Robert Frost Encyclopedia. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2001.

Nitchie, G.W. Human Values in the Poetry of Robert Frost: A Study of a Poet’s Convictions. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. 1960.

Timmerman, J. H. Robert Frost: The Ethics of Ambiguity. Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell University Press, 2002.